I have come to learn that Peter Molyneux’s team over at Lionhead Studios can tend to me more flash than substance. I remember buying the original Black and White years ago at launch because of all that I had read about it for years prior to that. As it turned out, the game was just okay. Now, a trailer for the sequel has hit the Internet, and while it looks good, to me it seems a bit too close to the original. Take a look and decide for yourself.

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If your iPod seems to be running out of steam at the most inopportune moments, then the Griffin TuneJuice might be your kind of thing. Simply put, it is a backup battery for dockable iPod/iPod mini units which is powered by a 9 volt battery. I can’t even name the last time that I actually purchased a 9 volt battery, but maybe that’s just me. The TuneJuice will provide another 8 hours of life to a partially charged iPod, but only 4 hours if the iPod is completely drained. You can pick one up for $20 bucks.

Time for another weekly column, Gear Live style. Our new columnist, Devin Roberson, will be bringing you the latest from the entertainment world each week in her column, The Final Cut. Why Devin? Well, for starters she is into movies and television. Secondly, she jives with our steelo. This week she gives us a bit of background on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

This Friday gives us the release of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, a movie based on a 1978 radio comedy series by Doug Adams, who also wrote the screenplay(along with Karey Kirkpatrick) for this film. Many fans of the Guide may also remember Adams’ “trilogy” of 5 books(the series was first dubbed a trilogy after the release of the 3rd book, and the title has stuck ever since) that he began writing shortly after the radio series: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe, and Everything (1982), So Long and Thanks For All the Fish (1984), and Mostly Harmless (1992).

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I love stupid lawsuits - they put a smile on my face. This is why I chuckled with glee as I read the email telling me of how Tiger Direct - one of the worst IT resellers around - has decided to sue Apple over the Tiger moniker. Apparently, they don’t like how Apple has been referring to their new operating system as “Tiger”, and go on to say that the suit is meant “to stop further damage to Tiger Direct’s well-known Tiger brand.” Wow. Good thing they waited until the day before Tiger is set to be released to drop that one on us. Good show.

For those not keeping track, today marks the two year anniversary of Apple’s launch of the iTunes Music Store, accompanied by its proprietary DRM format which would only play on an iPod. Sure, Real has tried and tried again with Harmony to get onto Apple’s popular little player, but Apple doesn’t like it. Alas, I await the day that iTunes offers a choice of format to download, so the tracks can be played on any player I want. Bah, who am I kidding? Ever since I discovered sites like this, I haven’t had a need for iTunes.

Sweet, sweet 70’s and 80’s bliss. Atari will soon be releasing this throwback Atari 2600 system for $30 bucks. It comes preloaded with 40 games, and this time it has A/V cables instead of an RF unit. Reminisce the 2 bit world with the wood canvas and the sweet joysticks.

The ability to pick and choose your music collection through an online music store is great. Shelling out $13 for a CD where only two or three songs are to your liking is not our kind of deal – hence the popularity of online music stores. However, what about the users without broadband or those people that still do not have a CD burner? That’s where Wal-Mart wants to capitalize. Now you have the option to pick and choose what songs you want on a CD and have Wal-Mart burn the CD, pretty it up with nice graphics, and mail it out to you. All this for a price of $4.62 for three songs, and 88 cents for each additional song with shipping set at $1.97. This is a nice alternative for some - we will stick with Russia for our music.

After a very long wait, software has finally caught up to hardware. Well at least when it comes to Microsoft. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition has been shipped on Monday. These operating systems are set to function on AMD’s and Intel’s 64-bit microprocessors and cost the same as the 32-bit versions of the OS. Finally we get a Windows tailored to the chips, but early adopters beware. Since this is basically a re-write of the OS, all the drivers need to be re-written as well. This means that even thought the OS comes with over 16,000 drivers there’s a chance there will be at least one driver you need and cannot find. Check the OS out and tell us what you think.

Will Poole, Microsoft VP, confirmed on Wednesday that the controller of the Xbox 2/360 will be compatible with Microsoft’s next operating system, Longhorn. Just how it will be used on the PC has yet to be known. Will the next Xbox blur the lines between home entertainment and personal computer just like Mr. Gates dreams? Sure seems like it. Needless to say, we will not know for sure just what role the Xbox 360’s controller will play in the next Microsoft OS for possibly months to come.

Yahoo has launched a test version of their latest search offering – My Web. These tools will allow users to save, search and even share any information they find on the Internet. What I find very interesting about this service is that Yahoo is incorporating these tools to its instant messenger and its new blog service. This will allow users to share, comment, and even subscribe to search information of other users – building a community devoted to finding information of a specific theme. The stored search history and pages can even include notes to remind you what the page consists of or simply to jot down ideas based on that web page. The services are currently being tested, but as soon as they are released to the public, Yahoo will make their API available to developers so that they may include the web tools in their next project.